ICICI drives $10 mn gain for Gaddafi

New Delhi: ICICI Bank has emerged as the single Indian entity considered worth investing by Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and the investment has given an impressive return of over 25 per cent in past one year alone.

As per the investment portfolio of Libyan Investment Authority, a sovereign fund controlled by Gaddafi, it had invested $29.6 million in the ICICI Bank ADRs (American Depository Receipts), the US-listed securities of India's largest private sector bank.

The portfolio has been made public by an independent campaign group Global Witness along with the financial details of Gaddafi-controlled fund as on June 2010. It could not be ascertained that when the investment was made and whether the fund is still invested in ICICI Bank.

When contacted, an ICICI spokesman declined to comment on the issue.

As per the portfolio, the value of the investment stood at about $32 million as on June 2010, since when the ICICI bank shares have appreciated by over 25 per cent.

Accordingly, the investment is estimated to be worth $40 million currently, marking an appreciation of about USD 10 million (about Rs 45 crore) or over 33 per cent since that period.

However, the investment is very small, compared to both the overall size of the fund as also the shareholding derived in ICICI Bank by virtue of this investment.

The investment would account for only about 0.1 per cent stake in ICICI Bank, and that too with securities without voting rights.

As per the document released by Global Witness, the total investment position of the fund stood at about $53 billion as on June 2010. This puts the investment made in ICICI Bank at just about 0.05 per cent of the fund size.

The fund has investments across the world, the most prominent being the US government treasury bonds, as also bonds and stocks of large financial and other corporations from across the world. A miniscule amount of investment has also been made in ICICI Bank, the single Indian entity to find a place in this portfolio.

Listed as a non-strategic equity investment, the fund purchased ICICI Bank ADRs worth $29.62 million (nearly Rs 135 crore), but the time of investment is not mentioned.

ICICI Bank's shares are listed in India on BSE and NSE, while its ADRs are listed at New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Banking experts said any company would generally have no control over such small size investments and ADRs anyway do not carry any voting rights.

As per Global Witness, HSBC and Goldman Sachs were among the key western bankers for Gaddafi's regime. Other banks and financial firms listed in the document include Societe Generale, UniCredit and the Arab Banking Corporation.

Global Witness said the Gaddafi family had significant personal control over the state funds invested in the Libyan Investment Authority. It quoted the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court as saying that "Gaddafi makes no distinction between his personal assets and the resources of the country".

The report also said the fund owned shares worth billions of dollars in household name companies such as General Electric, BP, Vivendi and Deutsche Telekom.

The fund had listed strategic equity investments worth over $3 billion in companies like Unicredit, ENI, Siemens, Pearson, BASF and Repsol. Besides it had made non-strategic investment worth over $6.8 billion in companies like GE, Bayer, BP, AT&T, Pfizer, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Nokia, Lafarge, Tesco, Exxon Mobil, ICICI Bank, Sanofi Aventis, Stanchart, Nestle and Royal Dutch Shell.

Source: Financial Express